Celtics are D-throning LeBron

Saturday

May 10, 2008 at 12:01 AM

There's no secret to what defensive strategy the Boston Celtics have employed to keep the Cleveland Cavaliers to an average of 72.5 points and, more importantly, 0.0 wins in the first two games of their second-round series.

TIM WEISBERG

There's no secret to what defensive strategy the Boston Celtics have employed to keep the Cleveland Cavaliers to an average of 72.5 points and, more importantly, 0.0 wins in the first two games of their second-round series.

"LeBron is what makes them go and if we can somehow control him, then we can control their team," Paul Pierce said.

By now, the entire NBA has figured out that to stop the Cavs, you have to stop LeBron James. But only a few teams have figured out just how to do that. The San Antonio Spurs came up with a successful plan in last year's NBA Finals, and after being torched by James so often in the past, it seems the Celtics have come up with a plan as well, one that's worked thus far and they hope will continue in tonight's Game 3 (8 p.m., ABC, 1420 WBSM-AM, 103.7 WEEI-FM).

Defense is what has carried the Celtics to six wins so far this postseason. It was also the Achilles' heel in their three losses, all outside the friendly confines of TD Banknorth Garden. And they'll hope to keep that defense going to earn their first road win of the playoffs tonight in the hostile environment of Quicken Loans Arena, where James is hoping he left his shot before making the trip to Boston.

Through the first two games of the series, James has gone 8-for-42 from the floor (shooting a dismal 19 percent), including 0-for-10 from the 3-point line. He's scored a total of 33 points in the two games, which is about three points over his per-game average from the regular season and the first round of the playoffs.

"I think defensively, they're very, very aggressive. They're very good. I'm just missing the shots that I normally make," James said. "The lay-ups that usually go down for me are just jumping out of the rim. The jumpers that I usually make are not going down for me. So I'm going to stay positive and get my way through."

The Celtics have one simple philosophy went it comes to defending James.

"(To) not let him get into the paint, by any means necessary," Leon Powe said. "If that means that if all the bigs have to pull over, and keep all eyes on him, that's what we have to do. We try not to let him get into the paint, and get going like that. If he hits some jumpers, so be it."

Forcing James to shoot deeper than he'd like is key to the Celtics' plan, and LeBron has played into that by missing. It's kept him off rhythm and unable to finish around the basket late in the game.

"We contained him," Ray Allen said. "But we made him uncomfortable more than anything. He still scored, (but) we forced him into zones where we wanted him to score, where we thought it was best for our defense."

"When you've got guys 6-10, 7-feet putting their arms out, showing on the pick-and-rolls, crowding him on traps, it makes it tough for him," Pierce said. "It puts him in a position where he has to start forcing things and that is what we try to do."

The play of the Celtics' big men — Kevin Garnett, Kendrick Perkins, Leon Powe and to a lesser degree Glen Davis and P.J. Brown — has been the catalyst for containing King James.

"They have athletic bigs. Their bigs are very athletic, with KG and Perkins and Powe. They do a good job of rotating out the back side and not allowing me to crack the second line of defense," James said. "I'm able to get back past the first guy, but then I'm meeting another big at the rim. So their bigs are very big, very athletic and pretty good."

One of the biggest factors has been how well the Celtics have defended Cleveland's pick-and-roll, which even James admits is "80, 85 percent" of their offense, designed to utilize his abilities on the run. Even though Boston has practically shut that part of their offense down, the Cavs are going to keep going to their bread and butter.

"We do a lot of pick and rolls, so it's hard to just throw them out the window," James said. "We have to just try to adjust, get me to a comfort zone, and get everybody else to a more comfort zone."

But the Cavaliers haven't done much to help themselves, missing even uncontested jumpers as they've shot about 30 percent in Game 1 and around 35 percent in Game 2.

"More than anything, these two games, our offensive execution has not been good," center Zydrunas Ilgauskas said. "Their defense is part of it, but part of it is us. We're in the wrong spots. It's not one guy — it's everybody taking turns messing it up."

But just how good are the Celtics at keeping the Cavaliers from doing what they want to do with the ball?

"Very good. Very good," Ilgauskas said. "We have counters for that, but we have not been executing well."

"That's what they do, you know? They are a very good defensive team," former Celtic/current Cav Wally Szczerbiak said. "They defend the paint real well, they don't give up lay-ups, they don't foul, they don't put you on the free-throw line, and they make you take contested jump shots."

That is the type of lock-down defense that can frustrate a player like James, who is called upon to do so many things and accounts for nearly 46 percent of his team's total offense.

"He's gotta be frustrated," Szczerbiak said. "He's such a good player and he has so much on his shoulders that sometimes it's really tough on him. Teams create a game plan to stop him, and it's our job to make his job a little bit easier."

James, however, said his shots not falling isn't what frustrates him. It's having 17 turnovers in the first two games of the series.

"I'm more frustrated with that because I know how to protect the ball," he said. "I've been pretty good at protecting the ball over this whole season and in the playoffs. So I'm more frustrated with that."

In tonight's game, one thing is for sure. No matter how much James has been struggling offensively, coach Mike Brown has no plans to reign him in.

"If LeBron is open, I want him to shoot," Brown said. "From inside the 3-point line or from outside, he needs to step in and knock it down. He has done it plenty of times before."

And if the first two games are any indication, he'll have to do it with more than one Celtic in his face.

Tim Weisberg covers the Boston Celtics for The Standard-Times. Contact him at timweisberg@hotmail.com

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